"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."

Friday, November 16, 2007

Beginning of the UMTR and Fab 5 Fifties

Yesterday, the Upper Midwest Trail Runners (UMTR) adopted its by-laws and became a going concern. They made me a board member and agreed to a plan for a series of ultramarathon trail races, the "Fab 5 Fifties." There will be official websites created for both, but until then, I'm willing to answer questions about them here.

Briefly, the series will 50 kilometer and 50 mile races and one's two best 50 milers and three best 50K's will be counted. I'll leave the scoring, entry info and other details for the official site. Pending approval of the race directors, the races will be:

By coincidence, it's possible to run all one's five races in Wisconsin or all in Minnesota.............................................................................(With apologies to Robert Frost) "Two paths diverged in a yellow wood and I took the road less traveled; that's the way course markings always go."

Most of this site will be devoted to my own training.I'm going to try to run all of the series races, plus a few others. My schedule looks like:

That's more than 500 miles of trails! I'm no dirt-munching mileage junkie, either. My idea of a "technical" course involves negotiating a curb. I don't own a headlamp, don't live on gels and S-Caps and don't even have a decent pair of trail shoes. Add to that that I'm always injured or ill (I have a cold as I write this), and it should be quite an adventure.

I'll try to post weekly, update everyone on the series as it develops and, if you keep reading, I'll keep running.

I ran with you, assuming there is only one by your name, at North High, I think you graduated a year before me. I thought you were a little nuts then but looking at your proposed race schedule you are certifiably crazy. Really I'm just a little jealous as I can only seem to fit in a couple races a year. Hopefully we can catch up at a FA if there happens to be one on a weekend I'm around.

Matt, you're a much better brewer than I am; if you supply me with barleywines, call yourself whatever you want.

Kel, I should've known a rock climber would wonder where the steep slopes are. I was running the river bluffs at Indian Mounds Park in St. Paul - some places are illegal, some impossible to run, the rest are just ludicrous. The only photo I can find:http://www.georgewright.org/conservation_corps_37.jpg

Anyone know how to hot button a link in the comments section?

Bryan, Lean Horse was added to make sure there was something outside Minnesota and Wisconsin. There are few reliable races in Iowa or the Dakotas. It helps that it's in August, which is otherwise pretty dull. It's not much further from the Twin Cities than the Glacial Trail, which is near Milwaukee (or is it?)

Yes, Andrew, I went to North and I was (and am) weird. The only Andrew I can come up with was Scobbie, who I don't remember ever running.

On the other hand, like you said, Lean Horse is in an otherwise gap in the calendar while McNaughton coincides with Chippewa Moraine in '08... though apparently Wynn is moving future editions of the CM 50K for just that reason.

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Steve says hi. Like in the last line of a letter (remember when people wrote letters?) between two people who both know him. Like that. Hi.
Oh, and I write about running. 35 years and nearly 600 races thus far.